New Wasteland Council
by Theirop
Summary: It's been three years since the Lone Wanderer and the Brotherhood of Steel defeated the Eclave at Adams Air Force Base. In that time the New Wasteland Council has been created. Will this fledgling government survive?
1. The Honeymoon

Bruce Williams, slowly opened his eyes and looked around his house in Megaton, even though he had a room at the Citadel and in the newly renamed Williams Tower he still preferred his little house in Megaton, especially now that the bomb in the center of the city wasn't going to blow any time soon. He rolled over and put his arm around his new bride; Sarah Lyons rolled over to face him and smiled. After the destruction of the enclave three years ago they had gotten to know each other better and a year ago they went the next step and began to date. Soon after Bruce had both asked her and her father for her hand in marriage and both had happily said yes. Yesterday had been their marriage day. They had been married three times, once by her father in the official Brotherhood's Steel Binding Ceremony, then by Father Clifford in Rivet City, and finally by Confessor Cromwell in Megaton.

Bruce was about to say something when his Pip-Boy began to beep signaling that someone wanted to talk to him. He sighed and put the message through. "Sorry to bother you Bruce but the council members have called for a meeting, its about what Riley and her people found and you need to grab Colin on your way too." Derek Pacion said "Oh and bring the Sentinel too we need all the members."

"Ok, we'll be over as soon as possible, I just woke up." Bruce said standing up "Good bye." He turned off his Pip-Boy. The Steel Wasteland Council had been the brain child of Bruce, Sarah and Elder Lyons. They had realized that while the settlements in the wasteland could defend themselves the wasteland as a whole was very dangerous. Bruce came up with the idea to attempt to unite the different settlements, to make them stronger and it would stimulate trade and travel. After some thought they had come up with the Capital Council. The Council would be made up of one representative from each settlement plus a Brotherhood representative a Regulator representative and a Head Councilman to keep order during meetings. Soon Bruce realized that the Brotherhood and Regulators were not enough to keep the peace and protect the Council controlled land. They decided to create the Army of the Steel Wasteland Council and add another seat on the council.

"Goddamn Council, I thought it'd be a good idea, but now it's just plain annoying." Sarah grumbled as she slowly got out of bed and stretched. She worked her way through her morning calisthenics not caring what her lack of clothing was doing to Bruce.

"Tell me about it, I haven't had a day off in weeks" Bruce agreed not able to take his eyes off his new wife. When she finished he turned around and began to get dressed. His first thought was his power armor but decided against along with his combat armor. He eventually decided to go with his leather armor, his sheriff's duster and hat. He turned back around to see Sarah in her power armor looking him up and down. "Yes, can I help you?" he said.

"No I was just thinking you might want to put something nicer on is all" Sarah said

"She says wearing her power armor." Bruce shot back

"I'm allowed to, I'm the Brotherhood's rep in the council." She said smiling

"I'm not even on the council." Bruce said.

"All the more reason for you to dress nicely." She said poking him in the chest.

"Bah, I'm wearing this and I'm not changing; besides we've already wasted enough time. I'll go get Colin and you get a vertibird. We'll meet you at the gate. The sooner we get there the sooner this is over." He said walking towards the door. Sarah rolled her eyes and began to put a call into the Citadel.

Bruce stepped out of his house and into the now busy city of Megaton. With the defeat of the Enclave and the disarming of the bomb the city had grown significantly over the past three years. So much so that most of the original megaton was not large enough to hold all the people so most residents live outside the city in the rebuilt Springvale. Bruce began to make his way over to Moriarty's saloon on the other side of Megaton.

After weaving his way through countless people and going up and down the walk ways Bruce mad it to the saloon. Even though it was 10:30 in the morning the saloon was busy, but the saloon was always busy. When Bruce walked in the first thing he heard was Gob yelling at him from the bar, "Hey Bruce what can I do for you?"

Walking over to the bar Bruce called back "Hey Gob, where's Colin, we need him for an emergency council meeting."

"Moriarty is not gonna like that, he's in the back room doing I don't know what." Gob said sliding a beer down the counter to someone.

"Thanks Gob, hopefully it won't be a long one." Bruce said walking away from the bar and towards the back room. His knock on the door was immediately followed by a 'what?' from Colin. "Hey Colin it's me."

There were the sounds of a person getting up, falling and getting back up again before the door was wrenched open and there stood Colin with a big red bump on his forehead. "What is it kid, I'm busy."

"Too bad, Council is calling an emergency meeting so we need to go."

"What now I'm busy, I also run a business you know." Colin said getting angry.

"Hey first off you are on the council I'm not and second I don't like it either, but the sooner we get there the sooner we can get back. Now come on I got a vertibird waiting for us." Bruce said turning around.

"Alright, alright, fine I'll come." Colin grumbled following Bruce.

They walked out of the saloon in time to see their vertibird fly over the city. They quickly made it through the town making detours around the construction sites in the city. Ten minutes after leaving the saloon they walked out of the gate and headed toward the newly refurbished town of Springvale. They were able to make out the dust stirred up by the vertibird over near the newly repurposed landing pad. They quickly made their way over to an unhappy looking Sarah Lyons and the vertibird.

"Well you two sure did take your sweet time didn't you?" Sarah said walking over to meet them.

"It took Colin a little while to get ready to go and with all the new construction we had to take detours." Bruce stated.

"You know what, I don't care just get in the goddam bird and let's go." Sarah said turning around and stepping onto the bird. The men quickly followed her onto the vertibird with saying anything.

As soon as they were strapped in in their seats the vertibird lifted off form the landing pad and began to fly in the direction of Rivet City. Bruce looked down as they passed over the newly repopulated town of Grayditch and remembered the day Brian Wilks came running up to him begging him to help save his home. Soon after they passed directly over the Citadel and Bruce caught sight of the hundred or so initiates running laps around the yard and could imagine Gunny's voice berating them to work harder. Off to his right he saw the purifier surrounded by the base of operations for the joint Brotherhood, Rivet city operation.

As the vertibird landed on the flight deck Derek walked out to greet them flanked by two Rivet City security members. When the vertibird touched down all three stepped off and hurried over to meet Derek. "You need to hurry everyone else is already here." Derek said shaking hands with all of them. They hurried along through the ship until they reached the council room.

The council room itself wasn't all that impressive. It was a large room with most of the light at the center and at the center was a ring of ten desks, seven desks for the six city representatives and the head councilman and one each for the Brotherhood, the Army, and the Regulator representatives. In the center of the ring was a raised platform. The platform was used by non-council members to deliver information and speak. Ringed around the council seats was a ring of thirty chairs used by spectators and visitors. All but two of the desks were occupied and soon Sarah and Colin took their seats. Bruce took a seat in the visitor ring behind Sarah.

Hannibal Hamlin, the head Councilman stood up to begin the meeting. "Now that everyone is here I propose we start this emergency meeting. The reason for calling this meeting is the return of Riley and her rangers from their scouting trip to the north. Her information was presented to Army Representative Smith, Regulator Representative Farber and Elder Lyons of the Brotherhood of Steel. After reviewing the information all three agreed that an emergency council meeting is necessary. Elder Lyons declined the invitation to come speak before the council. He stated he has complete faith in his elected reprehensive. Riley will now give her complete report to the council" Hannibal sat back down.

Since to elimination of the Enclave they Brotherhood and then the Council began to take back the DC ruins and the surrounding areas from the supermutants, Riley and her rangers had originally been hired as mercenaries to aid in this effort. When the ruins had been reclaimed Bruce approached Riley with an offer. Her rangers could be integrated into the Council Army as scouts and special operations, she would still be paid the same but she would have Council backing and support. Riley had accepted the offer a year ago and had since been sent on recon and scout missions outside of the capital wasteland to locate new settlements and decide whether peace could be made.

Riley rose from her seat and stepped into the center of the council ring and stepped up onto the platform. Riley was wearing her ranger combat armor and her hair tucked up into a ponytail. "The Rangers and I went northeast towards Baltimore as the Council had instructed. We left from Canterbury Commons seven days ago. We followed the road as best we could. We passed very few people on the road the first day. The first night we camped in an abandoned gas station the next day we walked for about four hours before we came across a small settlement called Scottsvale. The town had about fifty people total; they traded with us and were interested in where we were coming from. After telling them about the Council they said they were very interested in joining. They also told us about a major city four days northwest of them in an old mall called Brentwood. We spent the second night in the Scottsvale Inn and decided to head for Brentwood. We left Scottsvale and walked for five hours when we came across a group of about ten children hiding in an old building. The children told us that they were running from a place called The Orphanage that was a day's walk east. They said that it was run by an old man that had a bunch of robot helpers, everything from protectrons to robo-brains to sentrybots. They said that he was taking children and performing experiments on them and when they would come back they would be different almost sleepwalking and also they would never speak again.

We followed the kids back to The Orphanage and we saw signs of the Enclave. There were the prefabricated buildings, the Enclave sign was also on the compound, and finally we saw some Enclave troops leaving the compound when we arrived." When Riley mentioned the continued existence of the Enclave the air in the room suddenly changed and everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Riley. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Council our worst fears are true, the Enclave still exists."

Hannibal stood up "Thank you for your report Captain Riley. I will now open the floor to question and comments". Immediately Baron the Rivet City representative stood up.

"Well I think the next step is quite obvious. Restrict travel toward the orphanage area, beef up our defenses and wait for the Enclave to come to us." As soon as Barron sat down Sarah stood up.

"I think that is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard. It has been three years since we defeated the Enclave. They have had three years to mount an attack against us. The fact that they haven't even revealed their presence in that time shows me that they are not strong enough to oppose us. Also the captains' report included two settlements one that helped our people and wants to join the council and one that sounds like a possible ally and trading partner." Sarah took a deep breath and continued. "Furthermore if we want to expand our borders and open up to new communities then we can't be afraid to fight. No matter which direction we go we will eventually encounter a hostile force. I'd rather it be one that we have fought before and defeated." When Sarah sat down there was some light applause and a nasty look from Barron.

"I agree with Sentinel Lyons on this one," Said General Smith standing up "we have fought the Enclve before and defeated them also I'm sure that everyone will agree that we need to expand our borders if we ever want to grow our civilization. Our troops can win this battle, after reviewing the information that Commander Riley has provided I do believe that we have the man power to defeat the Enclave once and for all."

Barron quickly stood up again "If we do decide to attack the Enclave how long do you think it will take, how are we supposed to keep order here if all of our troops are off fighting?" he calmly asked.

This was Representative Farber's cue to speak "In case you have forgotten Mr. Barron keeping the peace within Council controlled lands is the duty of the regulators. Furthermore I'm sure General Smith and Sentinel Lyons will agree with me when I say it would be unwise to devote all of our troops to this attack." He received nods from both people "Finally this conflict should not take too long to complete, it will take longer to organize the troops than it will to win this battle"

Bruce decided it was time for him to weigh in on the subject, "Mr. Hamlin if I may," Hannibal nodded to him "I support this attack for more than just to see the Enclave completely destroyed. I also think that the settlements that we have discovered would be of great benefit to us, both in trading but also in population we all know how much our armed forces need more soldiers." He took a deep breath and continued "I believe that we need to also make contact with this Brentwood city, I am willing to take a small force to the city and attempt to convince them to join the council."

After he sat down it appeared the no one had anything else to add. "As Head Councilman," Hannibal said standing "I pose a vote, all those in favor of attacking the Enclave raise your hand." Everyone except Barron raised their hand. "The motion passes plans for the attack will begin on the conclusion of this meeting. Now the second matter at hand all of those in favor of making Bruce Williams the official ambassador of the Steel Wasteland Council raise your hand." This time all hands went up. "The vote passes, congratulations Mr. Williams on your new title. You will be expected to leave tomorrow." Bruce nodded his head but wondered what the hell he had gotten himself into. "This meeting is now finished have a nice day all of you."

Bruce stood up and walked out to wait for Sarah. When she did emerge from the council chambers she said "Really, we can't even be married for 24 hours before you get yourself sent off on another mission."

"Sorry about that I thought I would have a few days to get ready. Now I have the rest of today to get ready. Now I need to get a drink from the Muddy Rudder."

"It's 1:00 you don't need to start drinking now." She said sternly.

"It's not for me I need to go talk to a friend." He gave her a quick kiss and headed toward the stairwell.

* * *

><p>AUTHORS NOTE<p>

Hey guys I am looking for a beta reader for the rest of this story.

I know this chapter is kinda short but I just wanted to get this out and see whether I should continue it.

Also please, please let me know what you like and what you didn't.


	2. Let's Go For A Walk

Bruce walked into the Muddy Rudder and quickly spotted the person he was looking for. Butch DeLoria was sitting at the bar arguing with the new bartender Maggie. "Come on Maggie just one drink I can get you the caps tomorrow I got a job coming in later today."

"For the last time Butch no more drinks until you pay us back, you already owe us twenty caps from drinks, and if you do have a job coming in later then it might be better if you are sober for it. Now leave me alone before I have Brock throw you out of here." Maggie said turning away.

"You know what fine and just so you know I do have a job later so I'll see you tonight" Butch said standing up. He caught sight of Bruce "Hey Bruce, how's the married life treating you, buy me a drink and we'll talk about it."

"Actually Butch I'm here about the job you have to do today and I'd prefer if you're sober for it." Bruce said with a laugh.

"What, oh right that," Butch said trying to not act too surprised "let's get going then." Butch walked past Bruce and began to climb the steps to the exit of the bar. Bruce turned back to look at Maggie and got a mouthed thank you. He tipped his hat smiling and hurried after Butch.

Bruce caught up with Butch outside the bar. "Ok so what do you want from me now? What's this job you talked about?"

"I'm now the Council's ambassador and I'm leaving to go meet with another large settlement northeast of here. I'm supposed to convince them to join the council. I'm leaving tomorrow and I need some people to come with me I'm putting together a team, you in?" Bruce asked You'll get paid if you're wondering."

"Sounds good I'm in who else's coming?"

"I'm not sure yet I think I'm gonna ask Jerico if he's in as well. Also we leave tomorrow from Canterbury Commons. There's a vertibird leaving from here today in three hours, it'll take you to Canturbury Commons and the Brotherhood outpost will give you a bed for the night and I'll meet you there tomorrow, all you got to do is show them this." Bruce handed Butch a small piece of steel chain with a metal punch-out of the Jefferson Memorial on it.

"What the hell is this?" Butch held up the chain.

"It's the new symbol of the Council; it'll get you some basic supplies and a bed at any out post that can support you. Hold onto it, you might need it again."

"Ok," Butch put the chain in his pocket "So, I'll meet you there then."

"See you then" Bruce watched Butch walk back in the direction of the Muddy Rudder then he turned around and walked out into the Rivet City market place.

Ten minutes later he was aboard another vertibird, this time headed back towards Megaton. When he landed he began to walk towards the bustling city. As he was walking he heard someone call his name. Turning he saw a young man of about his age walking towards him. The man was wearing some leather armor, sunglasses and a ball cap. He had what appeared to be an assault rifle on his back and a duffle bag across his shoulder. He was clean shaven and had dark brown hair. "Mr. Williams, Hey Mr. Williams hold up a second." Bruce stopped and waited for the guy to catch up to him.

"Yes how can I help you?"

"Chris Harrison, reporting for duty"

"Wait," Bruce said "What are you here for?"

"I'm Chris, I'm supposed to join your team." Chris said "Regulator Farber sent me to join your team."

"I had no idea you were coming and I'm not gonna take anybody I don't know yet on this mission."

"Here this might clean things up," Chris handed Bruce an envelope "those are my orders. They also told me to show you this." he held up a Council Chain. True to his word the papers contained orders from Representative Farber telling Chris to meet Bruce at Megaton, join him on his mission and help answer any questions that the people might have.

"Ok this all seems to check out, welcome aboard Chris and call me Bruce." Bruce gave Chris a hardy handshake "Oh, there's gonna be one more guy joining us. His name's Butch and he's meeting us at Canterbury Commons tomorrow."

"Ok so what are we gonna do until then" Chris asked as they resumed their walk towards Megaton.

"I have to get my stuff together and pack, you can do whatever you want just as long as you meet me at Canterbury Commons tomorrow." Bruce said as they walked under the massive scrap metal gate. "I suggest you head to Craterside Supplies and pickup whatever you need for this trip and you can find a bed in the common house."

"You got it Bruce, I'll meet you at the vertibird pad tomorrow morning." Bruce watched Chris walk away toward the center of town. He quickly made his way back over to his own house. He walked in to a surprising sight. Sarah was sitting on the couch reading a book.

"Glad to see you made it home safely." She said putting the book down.

"Don't you need to be planning the attack on the enclave with the others?" He said

"Nah, I'm not one for all that planning. I'll fight when the time comes but I leave the planning to the others." She stood up and walked over to him "Besides I thought you'd like it if I was home to spend at least one more night with my husband." She threw her arms around him and whispered in his ear "This might be all the honeymoon time we get"

The next morning found Bruce in his NWC Combat armor with a his backpack on and his favorite gun, his Lincoln Repeater, in the custom sling on the side, he was standing next to Chris who had opted to exchange his old leather armor for a new set of combat armor similar to Bruce's he had is duffle bag and rifle from the day before as well. They waited for about ten minute until the heard the familiar sound of an approaching vertibird. They quickly boarded the craft.

They landed in Canterbury Commons and stepping off of the bird Bruce saw Butch coming out of the Diner. Butch also had on some NWC combat armor. He was wearing a backpack with his hunting rifle in its sling on the side. "Hey Bruce whose this?"

"Hey Butch this is Chris, he's with the regulators, he's coming with us."

"Well looks like he can hold himself in a fight." Butch looked Chris up and down.

"Your damn right I can hold myself in a fight." Chris said crossing his arms.

"Ok guys let's calm down we need to get going anyway." Bruce led them over to the NWC station. The building was in the burnt out husk of a prewar office building. The Brotherhood and some NWC soldiers cleared out the building and filled in the gaps with the leftover Enclave prefabricated walls. The building was divided into three parts. It contained the NWC's communication service, run by Brotherhood scribes. It also contained the local detachment of Regulators, and sleeping quarters for both groups.

The group stepped into the building and headed towards the comms room. "Ok wait here for a sec guys I gotta check in and then we can leave. It shouldn't take long but go ahead and make sure you have everything you want." Bruce said as he walked into the room. Shutting the door behind him he was greeted by a balding middleage man dressed in the robes of a scribe.

"Hello Mr. Ambassador I'm scribe Gleeson, I'm guessung you'll be wanting to use one of our secure feeds. Am I correct." Gleeson said with no hint of a smile at all.

"That is correct Scribe Gleeson, I shouldn't be too long just need to send a message." Bruce said walking over to the termi al that Gleeson led him over to. He quickly signed onto his NWC account and sent the departure message to the council.

Stepping out of the comms room he headed over to join the others who were talking to the quartermaster. The man was in the middle of an argument. He was trying to get Butch to exchange his hunting rifle for an assault rifle. "You dont get good range with the assault rifle. Also I'm not a big fan of wasting bullets." That seemed to be the end of the conversation as Butch walked away.

Bruce walked over to the door and got their attention. Stepping out into the sunshine Bruce pulled up the map on his pipboy. He had had Riley mark the location of Scottsvale on his pipboy as well as the gas station they had slept in. He showed Chris and Butch the map and the path they were going to take. Then they began to walk.

The road that they were walking on was in pretty good shape, at least by wasteland standards. It was a lot of flat land going off in either direction. Every once and a while they would see some animal scamper by or would hear it growl from a road side ditch. They had been walking for a few hours in silence when Butch couldn't take it anymore. "So Chris, tell us a bit about yourself. Where you from?"

Chris was silent for a bit "I grew up in a town to the south called Linden. My family raised Brahman. I stayed there until I was 16. My family's ranch was away from the main part of town so they couldn't protect us from the raiders. One night when we were all asleep they attacked, they burnt down the house killed my parents and took my 12 year old sister. I only survived because I wasn't in the house when they attacked. By the time I got back to the house they were gone and the other towns folk were showing up. I had nothing left at home so I went adventuring and I eventually wound up with the regulators."

"Wow," was all Bruce or Butch could say.

"Yeah, but enough about me. Butch what's your story? How do you know Bruce here?" Chris said.

"Both Bruce and I grew up together in vault 101, I used to bully him when we were younger." Butch said with a laugh. "Then when he was leaving the vault he saved my mother's life. A bit after he left the vault he and I joined teams and we have got some stories from those days."

"Yeah those were good times Butch." Bruce said "Remember that time," there was a noise "Shhhh, what was that?"

"It came from behind us." Chris whispered, there was a loud growl from behind them. The group turned and standing behind them was a large Yao Guai that was slowly stalking towards them. A large growl escaped its throat and it jumped at them.

"Scatter!" Bruce yelled. He dove left and Butch went right as the beast landed right where they had just been. The beast turned and was about to jump on Bruce when Chris's assault rifle began to fire gaining the Yao Guai's attention. The distraction gave Bruce time to recover and draw his rifle. He immediately bought the sights up on the monster's head. Bruce and the others began to pour bullets into the unnaturally large beast. It didn't take long to kill the beast but once it was over it left all three of the men shaking and out of breath.

"Well that was eventful, wonder where it came from." Chris said as he took a deep breath.

"They usually don't attack unless they feel threatened so we're probably near its nest." Butch said. As he walked over to the dead body and began to cut it open.

After Butch had cut the meat off of the body they continued on their way. They encountered no other problems and reached the gas station just as the sun was going down. The station was nothing special it had rusted pieces of metal all over the place but the inside of the store was in fairly good shape. There was obvious evidence that someone had used this place before all of the shelves and counters had been pushed into a counter and there was a fire pit in the center of the open area. They all immediately unrolled their bed rolls and sat down.

"I have not walked that far in so long." Butch said "It's been a while since we made a trek like that hasn't it Bruce. Reminds me of the time we went all the way from Rivet City to Little Lamplight. Man those kid were mean"

"You need to spend more time on the road Butch and not in the bar." Bruce said as he lit the fire. He reached into his pack and pulled out three cans of pork 'n' beans and began to let them cook.

After they had finished eating Butch and Chris went to sleep and Bruce took first watch. About halfway into his watch he was fiddling with his pipboy radio when he saw that he still got Galaxy News Radio this far away. He turned the volume on low and began to listen. Three Dog was in the middle of giving one of his famous news broadcasts.

_In other news it seems our famous lone wanderer has disappeared on some council business. What's he doing? Hell if I know. Wastelanders also report an increase of activity by council forces at Fort Banister. Finally remember kids drink your Aqua Pura it'll stop your belly from glowing. You've been listening to Galaxy News Radio now back to the music._

_Crazy He Calls Me_ began to softly come out of the speakers. Brucestood up to stretch his legs. He began to walk around the gas station. It appeared that over time the store had been cleared of everything of value. This wasn't quite true as Bruce found some old pre-war money in the cash register. He walked back over to his spot and sat down. He pulled out the dollar bills that he had found and looked at them. He recognized the man on the front of the 5 dollar bill as Abraham Lincoln, he knew him from his vault history classes. He had been president once.

After looking at the bills for a little while an idea came into his head. What if the NWC created paper money, people could trade in their caps for paper money and the council could use the actual caps they had to pay the soldiers. It would take some talking but he was sure it could happen. They could back the money with the aqua pura, they had plenty of it. He'd pose it to the council on their return. When his watch was over he woke Chris and then promptly fell asleep.

The next morning after a breakfast of Brahman steaks they all packed up and started walking again. They encountered no problems until they arrived at Scottsvale. When the town came into sight Bruce saw that it was similar to Big Town in that it was based in the ruins of a pre-war neighborhood. There was a cluster of about 10 houses surrounded by a junk wall and a gated opening. They were within shouting distance when a rifle shot flew over their heads. "Whoever you are state your business or walk away now."

"We're from the New Wasteland Council." Bruce said stepping forward.

"You are? Oh thank God, hurry up and get inside then." The guard said. The three of them hurried forward and into the town.

* * *

><p>AUTHORS NOTE<p>

Hey guys I'm glad you you liked the story enough to read the second chapter.

So there will probably not be a chapter next week because I am dealing with finals but there will be one soon.


	3. What's With All The Shooting

The moment they passed under the gate it slammed shut. Bruce turned around to look at the gate and saw a man coming down from the top of the gate. He was carrying a scoped rifle and was dressed in normal wasteland clothes. He had short red hair and a full beard. "Hi, I'm Ian, sorry about shooting at you but security and all that."

"It's fine but what happened our friends said that they were able to just walk right in." Chris said shaking Ian's hand.

"Let's just say that there are some people that we'd rather not let in, but I'm sure that Debbie will fill you in on that. She's in that big blue house down the street." Ian pointed down a street to their right.

"Thank you very much." Bruce said. They group then turned and walked down the street. Once they got to a more central part of the town they began to see other people. Most people seemed to not notice they were there, but all the kids stopped at stared at the three armored men carrying guns walking down the street. When they arrived at the blue house Bruce noticed a large sign above the door, 'Town Trader', there was another man with a gun standing guard. ""We're with the New Wasteland Council, were here to see Debbie." Bruce said to the guard.

"Ok go on through, she's in the shop."

The guard opened the door and the men walked into the Town Trader. The inside of the house was covered. The main area of the house seemed to be the business part of the shop. There was a wide assortment of goods in the shop. There was a counter near the back of the room. Behind the counter was a stern looking woman. She had dark black hair tied back in bun. "Hello welcome to the Town Trader I'm Debbie, how can I help you?"

"I'm Bruce, this is Chris and this is Butch," He pointed to each of them in turn. "I'm the New Wasteland Council Ambassador, Ian at the gate told us to talk to you."

"Ah, Yes, yes, come into the back we need to talk." Debbie led them back into the house and to a sitting area. She motioned for them to take a seat and then sat across from them. "I want you to know that I don't speak for everyone in Scottsvale but they will follow my lead. Now then your friend, Riley I think, wasn't very specific in her explanation of your council."

"Well the council is a union of wasteland settlements to help us better protect ourselves. Each settlement sends one representative to the council in Rivet City the council will not interfere with settlement administration. Each settlement in the council houses a joint Brotherhood of Steel and Regulator outpost. The Regulators are a sort of police force for council lands and the Brotherhood runs council communications. Chris here is a Regulator so he can answer any questions you may have."" Bruce pointed at Chris "As a member of the council you are agreeing to provide support for any council settlement if it is required or if the council is at war. That's about it do you have any questions?"

"As you can see we are a very small community and I'm not sure we can provide support in the form of soldiers."

"That shouldn't be a problem. If Scottsvale decides to join the council a settlement is only asked to provide as much support as it can without hurting themselves, however you are not allowed to prevent an individual from offering their services to the council."

"That seems reasonable." Debbie said "I'll have to talk it over with some of the others."

"Ok we'll be passing back through in a few days you can let us know then" Bruce said.

"We will be expecting you."

"Now mam if you don't mind me asking why the hell were we shot at when we were approaching the town." Butch asked.

"We decided to take in those orphans that your friends found and a few days ago some men came to the walls and demanded that we give back the children. We said no and they said that that they would get them back one way or another. Then yesterday they tried to sneak some men in but the children pointed them out. Now we can't be too careful."

"Mam you'll be glad to know that the Council is taking care of that problem in the next few days." Chris said. "You see those men and that compound belong to an enemy of the Council called the Enclave and the council has mobilized it army and is going to attack it."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"My job is to secure Scottsvale's introduction into the Council and to bring the idea to that other settlement you told our friends about." Bruce said

"Oh you mean Brentwood" Debbie said

"Yes, we should actually be leaving shortly its quite a hike isn't it." Bruce said standing up

"Yes it is, it's a good two and a half days walk and I'd feel a lot better knowing that you didn't have to spend an extra day out in the wasteland, why don't you spend the night here and head out tomorrow." Debbie stood up.

"Thanks for the offer mam but we don't want to inconvenience anyone."

"Nonsense you can spend the night here, we even have a trader headed in that direction leaving tomorrow, he can show you the way. You'd also be doing us a great service by getting her there safely. The road is crawling with bandits and animals." Debbie said.

Bruce looked at Chris and Butch, he got a shrug from Chris and Butch put it quite simply "As long as they have booze I don't care."

"Ok we'll stay, besides I need to get in touch with the Council and let them know that you are joining. Is there a radio in town somewhere I could use?"

"Yes, just go talk to John in the tavern he has uses it to boost the signal from your GNR station. It's on the other side of town it's pretty hard to miss." Debbie said as she led them out the door.

The three men began to walk through the town in the direction they had been told the tavern was. As they walked they looked around the town. This inner part of the town seemed to be much more busy than the outskirts they had already passed through. There was a weapon shop on one side of the street and clothing shop on the other. At the end of the street was a large two story building that before would've been very nice but its brick and wood exterior had overtime been replaced with whatever scrap material the owner had been able to find in order to keep the building standing. Despite all that it was still quite a sight and was without a doubt the largest building in the Scotsvale. "You think that's the tavern?" Butch said.

"She did say it'd be hard to miss." Chris said with a chuckle.

"Ok, so I say we go get a room at the tavern and then we can go refill on supplies and get some food." Bruce said as they were approaching the building.

"Sounds good to me." Chris said. They walked up the steps to the porch and into the building. The interior of the building is very similar to the outside, the once beautiful wallpaper was pealing off the wall and the walls were burnt or charred in some places. There was also evidence of disgruntled customers in the form of apparent bullet holes in the ceiling and walls behind the bar. The bar itself had not originally been intended for this purpose, it was made up of the counter from the house's kitchen and some makeshift counters branching off of it. The tavern was empty except for one patron and the bar tender.

Behind the bar stood a bald man of about forty-five. The other person at the bar was a quite obviously a woman but the pistol on her hip and the shotgun on her back were evidence to the fact the she could hold her own in a fight. When Bruce, Chris and Butch walked in the man looked up from his dish work and called them over. "Hey, welcome to the Scottsvale Tavern, I'm John." As they approached the bar the woman turned around to look at the new arrivals. This allowed Bruce to do the same. The woman had blond hair that she kept short enough that it didn't get in her face. She was wearing a very well fitting suit of leather armor and on the bar next to her was what Bruce assumed to be her cowboy hat.

The three men sat down at the bar, "What can I getcha" John said walking over to them. Butch ordered a whiskey and Chris a beer. Bruce asked where john kept his radio. Once he was told Bruce got up and walked into the back room to contact the Council. A second later John returned with their drinks. Both Chris and Butch sipped their drinks in silence just glad to be able to relax and get a drink. Every once and a while they would glance over at the woman at the bar who had returned to her drink.

Bruce returned from the back room and sat back down at the bar. "How much for a room."

"It's twenty caps a night and that includes breakfast in the morning." John said without looking up from where he was counting his money.

Bruce paid the man the twenty caps for a night's stay. After Chris and Butch finished their drinks the men walked back out into the sunlight. Bruce looked around for a second until he spotted a a shop with a sign that read 'Loch's Guns', having spotted the store he began to walk down the street to the building. The shop door had a bell that jingled when Bruce opened the door and they walked inside. The shop was a lit by a collection of work lights that hummed in tune with a generator somewhere in the shop. The jingling of the bell alerted the owner of the shop that he had customers. The owner of the shop came out of the back room and welcomed the group to the shop.

"Welcome to Loch's Guns I'm Flint the owner, now what can I do for you gentlemen today." He said walking up to the counter.

"Hello, we need to restock up on ammo, we wasted a lot of it trying to kill a Yaou Guai." Chris said as he approached the counter.

"Well lucky for you I've got quite a bit what type are you looking for." Flint asked

"We need about four magazines of 5.56 rounds for our rifles and as many .44 rounds as you have." Chris said

"Oh and do you have any flamer fuel?" Bruce added

"Here's the 5.56 ammo and give me a second to find the flamer fuel." Flint put the ammo on the counter and then disappeared into the back.

"Why the hell do you need flamer fuel cause I dam well know that you didn't bring a flamer." Chris asked turning to face Bruce.

"I need it for my Shishkebab." Bruce said drawing his Shishkebab.

" That's a machete."

"Thats what I thought too." Butch said from the front of the store.

"Watch this." Bruce said. Then he clicked the handle of the machete and the blade went up in a blaze. He let it burn for a few seconds then put it out.

"Holy Shit that's awesome." Chris said, as Bruce re-sheathed his blade. That was the moment that Flint came back out of the back with a tank of flamer fuel.

"This is all I could find."

"Thats fine thank you." Bruce said. Bruce payed the man and they left the store. They walked back out into the street and looked around.

"I vote we eat." Butch said. As they began to walk again.

"Ok, let's head back to the tavern and get something." Bruce said. They walked back to the tavern and went back inside. They ordered their food and sat down to eat it. Butch noticed that the woman who had been at the bar was now gone. After asking the John where she had gone he discovered that she had gone to pick up some hings for her trip tomorrow. This peaked Bruce's interest and after some asking he found out that Alice, as she was called, was the trader that they were supposed to travel to Brentwood with the next day.

When Alice returned the three men introduced themselves and told her about their travel plans. "Well listen, I don't need your help. I've made this trip plenty of times by my self. I'm only doing it because I owe Debbie a favor. So stay out of my way and we'll get along just fine. By the way we leave an hour before dawn tomorrow so I suggest you go get your beauty rest." She said as she got up and walked to her room. The men agreed to take her advice and after they finished their drinks they also went to bed.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

When I was writing the other chapters I realized something wasn't going to add up so I had to change it. I should have chapter 4 up by next weekend. As always comments and suggestions are welcome.


	4. Protection Detail

The next morning Bruce, Butch and Chris woke early, ate breakfast and headed over to the gate to meet Alice. On their arrival they saw Alice leaning on the fence to the brahmin pen. Next to her was a fully loaded pack brahmin. "Nice of you guys to join me. If your finally ready to go then we need to get a move on otherwise I'm leaving without you." With that she picked up the backpack at her feet and lead the brahmin out the gate. The men hurried to catch-up.

They had been walking for about an hour when Bruce spoke up. "So Alice how long have you been a trader?" She looked over he shoulder at him. It appeared that she wasn't going to respond but instead she talked

"I started trading about five years ago. Before that I was a traveler."

"Have you ever been to D.C?" Butch asked.

"I passed through about three years ago and nearly got myself kill by these weirdos in black power armor."

"That must've been before we got rid of the Enclave." Bruce said and the other two nodded, remembering the fear of running into those guys when traveling.

"Alice, you don't sound like you're from around here." Chris said after a second.

"I'm not, I'm from the south, I was born in the Kingdom of Knox actually."

"The Kingdom of where?" Bruce asked.

"Knox, it's based on an old prewar fort. It's in the prewar state of Tennessee."

"What are you doing here, that's a long way away."

"Let's just say something happened that caused me to have to leave that place behind and leave it at that." Alice said and that seemed to be the end of the discussion. They continued to walk along the road for about three hour until it began to go uphill, then Butch, who had been scouting ahead signaled them to stop and motioned for Bruce to come forward. Bruce dropped into a crouch and began to make his way up the hill. When he reached the top he laid down next to Butch.

"What's the problem?" Bruce whispered. Butch motioned for him to keep quiet and pointed down the hill and to the right. Looking over the hill Bruce looked for a second and then saw it. Crouching down next to the road, hidden to the casual observer by a pile of rocks, sat a group of five raiders. They were dressed in typical sadistic raider armor but they all had a crudely painted blue hand on their armor. They were all carrying automatic weapons except for one who was carrying a flamer. Bruce and Butch crawled back to the others and told them what they saw. "I say we go around and hit them from behind." Bruce offered.

"Well Betsy here," Alice said referring to the brahman "Can't really do that."

"Ok how about this, Alice and I go over the hill and distract them and you two hit them from behind." Chris said pointing at Bruce and Butch.

"No they'd kill us before those two could do anything." Alice said "What we need to do is take them by surprise. Here's what were gonna do. Chris and Butch you two need to storm over the hill and hit them by surprise this'll give Bill and I enough time to go around the side and toss one of these in with them." She said as she pulled a frag grenade from her pack and tossed it to Bill before picking up her shotgun from where she'd put it on the ground.

They took a few minutes to get set then on Alice's signal Chris and Butch stormed over the hill and began to fire on the surprised raiders. It was a few seconds before Bill and Alice heard return fire. This was their cue, coming around the side of the hill Bill pulled the pin on the grenade, "Fire in the hole." He yelled as he lobbed it into the group of raiders. The three remaining raiders were too busy dealing with Chris and Butch to notice until it went off knocking them all to the ground one dead and the other two dying but before and of the group could get to them the flamer tank went up in a fireball killing the remaining two instantly.

Blinking the spots from their eyes the group caught sight of the remains of the raiders. There was a charred circle about ten feet across. The body of the raider with the flamer was charred and blackened. The others were in better shape but not by much. True to wasteland fashion the four inspected the dead for things of value or use but there was not much to be found besides a few magazines. Chris walked back over from one of the dead raiders and held up a piece of cloth with the blue hand on it. "Alice you know this area better than we do, who were these guys?"

"They look like the grimhand but that can't be right. The farthest south they've ever been is Brentwood and that was years ago. If they're this far south this isn't a good sign. Brentwood is in trouble. We need to hurry." Alice said looking at the cloth.

"Alice, they're just raiders. I think you're over reacting." Butch said

"They're not 'just raiders' Butch they are an army that kills everything in its path. They don't advance past a place unless it has been destroyed or is under their control." Alice shot back.

"Then that means it might be to late for Brentwood." Chris said.

"Then we need to hurry I want this city for the Council, we need all the help we can get." Bruce said. "Alice is there any faster way there?"

"Well I don't think I need Betsy anymore, I don't think the city will be very interested in trading when they're under attack. So there's an inn down the road and we can store her with them and get off the road. Which is a straighter shot to Brentwood." Alice responded.

"Ok how far is this inn from us?" Bruce asked.

"It's about three or four hours from us." Alice said "If we get a move on we can got to Brentwood by midday tomorrow."

"Works for me let's move." Bruce said. The group recovered Betsy and continued on down the road. As they walked Bruce asked Alice more about the grimhand. "What did you mean by army they looked like a group of bandits or raiders to me."

"They look and think like a group of raiders but they were only part of a much larger whole. Supposedly the grimhand control all the way from Baltimore to Boston. From the stories I've heard they either subjugate or destroy everything under their control."

"Wow" was all Chris was able to say.

"I don't know too much but supposedly they are lead by a guy named Biton Huyler and operate out of a place called Saxness somewhere near Baltimore."

"And she says that she doesn't know anything" Butch said with a laugh.

"I meet a lot of refugees ok, no one except for the grimhand themselves know why the hell they do this and no one's ever gotten the chance to talk to one and live." Alice said.

"Someone needs to get word of this back to the Council." Bruce said.

"We should be able to contact your Council when we reach Brentwood." Alice said.

"What do you think we'll find when we reach Brentwood, what are their defenses like?" Chris asked.

"The location is pretty defensible, they can barricade the doors and windows, they also have a very basic turret system on the outside of the building. They have maybe twenty armed guards."

"How long could they hold out under siege" Bruce asked.

"I don't know maybe a week but the grimhand is notorious for being able to crack a defended city without a long siege."

"So we need to hurry then."Butch said.

"Cut the chatter people and pick up the pace we need to get there ASAP." Bruce said.

They walked in silence for about four more hours until they came across they inn that Alice and mentioned. It was based out of what looked like a one story farm house with wasteland style additions to make more room. They went in to rest and get a bite to eat and then got to go. The three men waited outside while Alice went in to talk to the inn keeper. It took about twenty minutes for set everything up with the man then she walked Betsy into the stable next to the inn, handed the inn keeper a string of twenty caps. "I'll give you the rest when we come back."

The men stood up from where they had been sitting as Alice walked over. They walked back to the road and resumed walking. "Ok Alice, lead the way. Time to go save a city" Bruce said. Alice then led them off the road and into the wasteland. They walked for a little while until Bruce spoke up.

"Alice how long should it take us to get there?"

"By going off road we cut it to about seven hours."

"I'm thinking we get some sleep earlier rather than later and we might be able to get to the city before daylight."

"Not a bad Idea that way we might be able to get into the city easier." Alice said.

"So we what, walk for about six more hours, rest at sundown and walk the last hour tomorrow morning?" Chris asked.

"That seems to be the plan." Bruce said.

"Let's get to it then." Butch said taking the lead. They walked in relative quiet for the next few hours. Once they were off the road they had to work harder to get over the rough terrain. In classic wasteland style the ground was the orange red dust of post-apocalyptic ash dotted with the burnt dead husks of trees. It was about three hours later when Bruce decided to break the silence.

"Alice, you got me interested. What is the Kingdom of Knox like?" He asked walking next to her.

"Well as I said it's based out of an old pre-war fort, that's where the name comes from Fort Knox. It was apparently where the old people kept all their gold, or that's what they teach us. It's ruled by a King and two elected advisors. When I left it was ruled by King Samuel but that's was a while ago so it might be his son George. I was fairly young when I left so I don't remember too many things but what I do remember is that I was made up of two cities, the capital Knox and the post-war settlement of Typhon, where I lived."

"That's interesting, where there any vaults in the area?"

"I think vault 52 was nearby but it wasn't under the control of Knox."

"Ah ok ok. So what was it like living there?"

"Like any post-war settlement, if you were on the side of the government then you were fine but if you weren't well," Alice paused "let's just say I'm the result."

"Do you think they would be interested in joining the council?" Chris asked.

"If George is king then maybe, but Samuel would only try to take over." Alice responded.

"Well then let's hope that George is in charge." Bruce said with a laugh.

"I'm more interested in this council of yours. What is it?" Alice asked.

"Well about three years ago the D.C. Brotherhood of Steel attacked the defeated the Enclave at their main base at Adams Air Force Base. After this victory the D.C. wastelands became a much safer place but I realized that in order for us to survive we had to band together. I came up with the idea of the council and using my relationships with the major settlements in the wastelands I convinced them to join me. Then I was able to bring the two most powerful military organizations, the Brotherhood of Steel and the Regulators, together and created the council. Then about a year and a half ago we decided to create the Council Army." Bruce said.

"How does it work I mean." Alice said.

"Well, each settlement sends a representative along with one from each of the three divisions of the Council Armed forces. The Council does not interfere with the local running of a settlement. Its main functions are to secure the areas between settlements, promote trade, and to provide protection and military support for its members." Bruce said.

"Ok, doesn't seem like that bad of an idea." Alice said.

They chatted for a bit more and then fell into their now customary silence. They continued to walk until they sun began to set. Then they began to look for a place to spend the night. They eventually found a rocky outcropping and stopped there. They decided to light a small fire but eat a quick cold dinner and go to sleep. Butch took first watch.


	5. Let's Go To The Mall

**Hey guys here it is, the full chapter I hope you enjoy.**

The next morning Chris who was on the final watch woke everyone up at about an hour till sunrise. They quickly woke up stretched ate and broke camp. They set off with Alice in the lead. Alice took a few minutes to get her bearings and then then they continued off northwest. They walked in silence for the last hour. Eventually they came over a sight ridge and down the hill from them was Brentwood.

The settlement was indeed an old mall. They were able to see the remains of the sign by the road. It was shaped like a 'T' with a second story in the center. Most of the windows were barricaded by either wood or metal. The entire town was surrounded by campfires. Looking through his binoculars Bruce was able to observe awakening camps. He also noticed that not every campfire was manned; they seemed to be there for effect. The sun was just beginning to come up when Bruce finally spoke.

"Ok, we need to get moving, the west wall seems to be the least manned we go that way." He said pointing. "Stick to the ridge and say in the shadows. Let's go." He began to move to his left in a slight crouch. The others followed him. They moved until they were even with the west wall and then Bruce motioned for them to stop. "It's a straight shot, keep running and don't stop for anything until you get through the campfires. We can set up a defensive behind those low walls." He pointed.

He pulled out his rifle and started running. The others followed suit. They were almost to the camp, when there was a response form the raiders. Butch responded to their shooting by tossing a grenade into the middle of them. When he was about midway through Bruce pulled out two grenades and tossed them to either side of him. Before pulling out his Shiskebob and cutting down the raider in front of him. Two his left Alice blasted a raider at point blank with her shotgun. Behind them a bullet bounced off Chris's armor before he dropped the shooter with a double tap of his rifle.

It took about three minutes for all four of them to make it through the camp and into cover. Once behind cover they were able to start picking off enemies while they were still recovering and figuring out what had just happened.

It took the raiders about five minutes to regroup and in that time the four of them were able to drop seven. While there was a lull in the fighting Bruce took the opportunity to bang on the entrance behind them and yell "Open up, we can't spend all day out here." When the raiders did manage to regroup they made Bruce scamper back to cover by bouncing a bullet off his arm. Once back in cover the four of them had to fire in turn in order to keep the raiders pinned down. They kept this us for about ten minutes before the door opened and someone shot a missile at the raiders before ten armed men came running out and helped push the raiders back. Bruce and the others quickly ran into the open mall.

Once inside the door was quickly shut behind them. The inside of the mall was fairly well lit. They stood at the end of one of the long hallways. This one seemed to be for the living quarters, because many of the shops had beds and things in them. Once the door was shut the group found themselves surrounded by ten armed men in riot armor. They were quickly approached by a man in a well-worn suit of combat armor. He stopped about three feet in front of them. "And who the fuck are you?"

"My names Bruce Williams form the New Wasteland Council and were here to help, Mr…." Bruce said putting his weapon up.

"Names Chief Baily. Well Mr. Williams that one hell of a risk you just took. You could've gotten yourselves killed," he said motioning to his men to stand down. They lowered their weapons but didn't do anything else. "But you didn't and that says you all are not complete idiots. So you say you wanna help do you? In that case you can follow me to the south wing that you just made me pull my men from." With that he turned and began walking down the hallway. Bruce turned and looked at the others before shrugging and following him.

"Chief, what's the situation?" Bruce asked catching up with Baily.

"We got grimhand and a lot of them as I'm sure you saw on your way in. They showed up about four days ago. They've been hammering at our south entrance the most and we're expecting another attempt soon. Your arrival seems to have caught them off guard maybe bought us some time. The door's pretty well barricaded but that's where we think they're trying to come through." He lead they reached the end of the hall and took a right. They passed a large group of women and children. Some were sitting down and watched them go by others were buying things from shop owners. Bruce found himself wondering where all the men were until they turned the corner and saw a large mass of people carrying guns standing in front of a door similar to the one they came in.

"I hope your men are well trained chief cause they got a lot more than this out there." Alice said.

"Oh they're plenty trained. My concern is that we'll run out of bullets." Baily said with a slight laugh. Chris and Bruce had been looking intently at the situation before them when Chris whispered something to Bruce and Bruce nodded his head.

"Chief I think I have an idea that could help you out. How many mines do you think you have?" Chris said turning around. Chris and Bruce explained their plan and got to work setting it up.

Chief Baily called over a group of men and told them scrounge up as many mines and explosives as they could. Bruce took a team of men to find anything they could to form a barricaded funnel in front of the door, while Chris Butch and Alice began setting up fortified position. When Baily and his men returned with the explosives they began placing them in the new pathway created by Bruce and his men. They were almost done setting up when there was a boom and the front doors began to give way. "Baily it's time to go I don't think those doors are gonna hold much longer." Bruce yelled. Baily nodded and motioned for his men to start heading back. He quickly laid out the rest of the mines and was almost all the way back when a second explosion busted open the door and knocked Baily to the ground. Then a second later men in raider armor began running through the opening. Bruce yelled for Baily to stay down as he and the other defenders began to fire at the invaders.

They were able to take down the first few rows of raiders before they managed to set off the first row of mines. This was the cue for Baily to crouch walk over to the first barricade. The pause created by the first set of mines allowed the defenders to toss grenades over the growing pile of dead bodies. This allowed the rest of the defenders to reload and reset. After the few seconds of rest there was a large roar from outside and a second wave of men came charging inside firing blindly. The defenders were able again to take down a large number of raiders who were getting crowded and jammed in the choke point. When one set of defenders would have to reload another would pop-up form behind cover and keep firing into the mass of living and dead bodies that was forming at the doorway. Eventually the raider tide stemmed when they had to start moving their dead and wounded out of the funnel in order to keep advancing.

The defenders used this lull in the fighting to tend to their wounded as well. Bruce looked around the chaos and took everything in. Butch and Alice were next to each other taking cover behind an overturned counter that had been fashioned into a barricade by covering it in mismatched sheets of metal. They seemed to be laughing about something but he was too far away to know what. Closer to him, Chris was taking cover next to one of the town's defenders. They were behind a barricade made out of an old highway median that had been previously used to barricade the door shut. Bruce was by himself behind a barricade made of an old metal door. He was still looking around the warzone when the raiders resumed their attack. He was just distracted enough that by the time he realized what was happening one of the first shots fired by a raider slammed into his shoulder and found its way between the pieces of combat armor. The only thing he could think of before blacking out was 'Guess you only get lucky so many times.' Then the pain became too much and he slumped to the ground behind the barricade unconscious.


	6. Chapter 6(Preview)

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey guys I know it's taken me a while I've just been really busy but I hope to be updating this story more again,

here's a preview of the up coming chapter

hope you enjoy.

* * *

><p>Bruce slowly opened his eyes and tried to sit up when he felt a wrenching pain in his right shoulder and he fell back onto what he discovered was a mattress. The sudden pain from his shoulder had sent his mind retreating into the dream world that it had just left. He could vaguely hear what he thought was a voice from beyond his surroundings. As the pain slowly receded and he came back into the real world the voice became clearer. "Whoa there son you took quite the hit. Try taking it slow the next time." The voice was coming from somewhere off to his left. He slowly opened his eyes once more and slowly turned his head in the direction of the disembodied voice. Sitting in a chair against the wall opposite his bed was a man with glasses greying hair and what looked like a mechanic's jumpsuit. His hair was held back by a green bandana. He slowly stood up and mad his way over to where Bruce was resting. He looked at some monitors above Bruce's head before pulling up the stool next to Bruce's bed.<p>

"What happened? Where am I?" Bruce asked looking around.

"You're still in Brentwood don't worry." The man said sitting down. "You got shot in the shoulder pretty bad during your big fight with the Grimhand and blacked out. They were able to get you here before too much damage was done, but you're still going to be in a sling for the next few weeks. So no fire fights for you anytime soon."

"How long have I been out?"

"The battle was three days ago, you lost a lot of blood."

"What happened with the battle?" Bruce asked slowly sitting up.

"Well eventually you guys were able to kill enough of those bastards that they thought twice 'bout attacking and they appear to have retreated." The man said helping Bruce sit up.

"Who are you?" Bruce asked looking around the room.

"Doc Harper, I'm the medical expert around here." Harper said walking back to look at a clipboard.

"What about my friends?"

"Your friends are fine, give or take a few cuts and bruises." The Doc said "Nothing a stimpak or two can't handle"

"Yeah I think I'm gonna need those for a few more days" Bruce said slowly standing up.

"I can get you some don't worry. Take it easy how do you feel?"

"Like I just got super sledged by a super mutant." Bruce said slowly moving his shoulder about.

"Well that's no surprise. You think you can walk?"

"Yeah I think so."

"Good, cause I think there are some people who wanna talk to you." Harper slowly helped Bruce over to the door. Outside the door was what appeared to be a waiting room of sorts. It was empty except for a small group of people on the other side of the room. When Bruce and Doc Harper entered the room the group stood and Bruce was able to recognize who it was. Bruce made his way over to where Chief Baily, Alice, Chris and Butch were sitting.

Baily was the first to speak. "Mr. Williams on behalf of the city of Brentwood I say thank you. If you had not showed up we might not have made it through the siege." He shook hands with Bruce. "During your absence your companions have informed me of your Wasteland Council and I have set up a formal meeting with the city Elders."

"Thank you that is very kind of you."

"Now if you'll excuse me I have to go oversee the rebuilding of the outer defenses." Baily stood up and left the room with one last handshake


End file.
